Despite Difficult History, U.S. Beef Performing Very Well

At the recent strategic meeting of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, attendees were given an inside look into the history of U.S. beef in South Korea. Since U.S. Beef began being exported to South Korea about 30 years ago, there were challenges to overcome like the strongly protected domestic beef market. However since the 1990s, U.S. industry has made great strides, and became Korea’s largest beef supplier in the early 2000s. Then came a huge setback, when the Korean market closed to U.S. beef for several years following the 2003 BSE case.
The USMEF-Korea Director Jihae Yang shared that now the USMEF is able to focus on less on consumers’ safety concerns and more on quality and enjoyment of U.S. Beef
Yang: “We are moving from safety to quality. Now we are talking about the brand, we talk about home shopping and lot of recipes. We are talking about something fun so now the paradigm has changed from something negative or safety related to promotional story. So we will continue to grow in the market. I want to take a moment to appreciate the producers and U.S. government for making this happen. I really appreciate that we are back in the market. Now we can talk about the quality.”